Who is John Edward Jones? Cave diver's body still stuck upside down in Utah where he died over 10 years ago
NUTTY PUTTY CAVE, UTAH: The body of John Edward Jones, who died in the Nutty Putty Cave in Utah, is still yet to be recovered more than a decade after his death. In 2009, Jones reportedly entered the cave on an expedition with his friends and family. He visited the spot for cave diving and the group quickly split into two. The children and some adults went to see the less dangerous parts of the cave, while the rest had chosen to delve deeper.
According to reports, the cave had only been reopened to the public six months before Jones went to the site. There had been four incidents at the caves in which rescue attempts had taken place. Jones had gone into the less-safe areas of the cave accompanied by his brother Josh, where the two had decided to look for a narrow tunnel that spelunkers had called a "birth canal". However, as per LADBible, some of the caves still did not have a definite mapped-out route, which led the brothers to the wrong entrance.
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With the way forward being very narrow and Jones being locked in a tight spot, he had to crawl on his fingers and hips and couldn't breathe or move freely. When he tried to make his way out through the gap, he breathed in to move but got stuck when he breathed out. At this point, Jones called for his brother to help and Josh tried to pull his legs out, only to slip further into the cave and stuck upside down.
Josh then ended up climbing 400 feet from where he was stuck to call for help. By the time the rescue team arrived, Jones had been stuck in the spot for three hours. A rescue operation of over 24 hours was conducted with over 100 people to help bring Jones out of the cave, however, they were unsuccessful.
Finally, a plan was devised to use ropes and pulleys to pull Jones up. However, one of the pulleys broke and he got stuck right where he was again. Later, the rescue team tried to chip off the rock that he was stuck in but it was too late. Jones' body had given up due to huge pressure from being upside down and struggling to breathe. A doctor later pronounced him dead from a cardiac arrest.
In the end, it was decided that it was too dangerous to remove Jones' body from the cave so the part where he was stuck was collapsed with explosives and the Nutty Putty entrance was sealed up with concrete. Thus, the diver's body has been stuck upside down in the caves where he tragically died for more than ten years.